Harty: Being in the Big Ten a financial blessing for Iowa
IOWA CITY, Iowa – I’ve listened to Jim Delany enough to know that he is a boring public speaker for the most part.
But when it comes to negotiating a deal, the Big Ten’s soft-spoken commissioner and cure for insomnia is a money-making force.
He has proven it again with the Big Ten latest’s television deal in which ESPN will buy the second half of the Big Ten’s media rights package according to the Sports Business Journal. The agreement ended months of speculation that the two were about to sever their 50-year relationship.
ESPN will pay an average of $190 million per year over six years for essentially half the conference’s media rights package, according to what the Sports Business Journal said were several sources close to the talks. Two months ago, Fox Sports agreed to take the other half of the package for an average of $240 million per year. CBS Sports also has told the conference that it will renew its basketball-only package for $10 million per year.
The Big Ten will see its average media rights payout nearly triple when the new deals start in the fall of 2017.
Combine that with money the conference is getting for its shares of the profits from the Big Ten Network and College Football Playoff, and you’re talking about revenue amounts that were beyond comprehension just a decade ago.
The Big Ten schools will make enough money that they could be horrible in football and still probably pay the bills, thanks to Delany’s vision and negotiating skills.
It comes down to Iowa being in the right place at the right time since 1899 when it joined the Big Ten Conference, along with Indiana.
Iowa was located in the right spot geographically as a bordering state to Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
It also had a lot to offer as a university despite being in a state with a low population, not the least of which were loyal and engaged fans.
Both sides have made each other better over the past 125 years.
And now the Big Ten is making all of its members rich, even the conference’s bottom feeders.
There is a flipside to getting all this money, however, and that’s being inconvenienced.
Long gone are the days when games mostly started at the same time and were mostly played on the same days of the week.
No days or starting times are off limits anymore because of television.
It’s a small price for fans to pay in order for the athletic department to line its pockets.
As for Delany, he deserves high praise for turning the Big Ten Conference into a sound business model in this age of massive television revenues. From its equal revenue sharing to its vast reach from the Midwest to the east coast, the Big Ten Conference will soar into future, with Iowa fortunate to be on board.